Quality Time on the Set

Nelson said his father wanted the kids to have as normal a childhood as possible.

"I learned an awful lot," he said. "My father was a wonderful father and a great person to work with because he was always considerate of other people's feelings. I think it would have been a different situation if I had worked with other directors or directors who weren't in the family. It really was a family show on and off the screen."

Desi Arnaz Jr. has similarly warm memories of the years he worked with his mother, Lucille Ball, on "Here's Lucy." Arnaz had grown up around the Desilu Studios, so by the time he was a teenager, working there was second nature.

"It was kind of a 9-to-5 job, which was great," recalled Arnaz, 54. He and his wife, Amy, now run a live performing-arts theater along with the nonprofit Boulder City Ballet Company for children in Boulder City, Nev.

"We were pretty used to the schedule. So there wasn't a lot of bringing the work home. When mom got home, she wanted to relax, have dinner and not be thinking about the show, because you'd have to go back and do it the next day."

With his mother running things, Arnaz also got to play music with his band on the show.

"It was a good time for all of us," he said. "Mom wanted us to work with her. She thought it would be an opportunity for us. There was a little bit of, 'How's this going to work out, and is the audience going to accept this or not?' because we were playing characters as the Carter family, but we really were her children. But I thought it worked pretty well."

Know of other parent-child combos who have worked together regularly in a TV series? E-mail us: tvweek@washpost.com.

Starring Side by Side

Some parent-child teams who have acted together regularly in a TV series:

* Lucille Ball and her children, Desi Jr. and Lucie, on "Here's Lucy" (1968-74). Desi Jr. made the cover of TV Guide in 1953, but another child played Lucy's son in "I Love Lucy."

* Ozzie and Harriet Nelson and their sons, David and Rick, on "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" (1952-66).

* Michael Wolff co-stars with his sons, Alex and Nat, on Nickelodeon's current series "The Naked Brothers Band."